Archive for the ‘“Have you no sense of decency?”’ Category

Â¶ Matins: The High Line may be cute, but we disapprove (an understatement) of elevated highways in urban areas. So does everybody with a brain. Jonah Freemark and Jebediah Reed contemplate the elimination of seven American monstrosities.

Â¶ Lauds: At Speakeasy, Jim Fusilli asks if there will ever be another Michael Jackson. He’s not talking about artistry, really, but rather about the business. His answer is that not evenÂ Michael Jackson at his prime could sell 750 million albums today.

Â¶ Tierce: Bernard Madoff was sentenced to one hundred fifty years in prison today, but as far as victim Burt Rossis concerned, that’s not even the beginning of what’s appropriate. “When he leaves this earth vitually unmourned, may Satan grow a fourth mouth…” The reference is to Canto XXXIV of Inferno.

Â¶ Nones: It’s rather maddening, but I can’t confirm my hunch that the ousterof Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was engineered by the “European” elites that own most of the property in Central America. Update

Â¶ Vespers: John Self writes about Marilynne Robinson’s first novel, Housekeeping(1981). If you missed it, Mr Self may whet your appetite for a fine novel.

Â¶ Compline: V X Sterne is back, at Outer Life, and it will surprise none of his regular readers that he unpluggedthe second flat-screen monitor that was recently installed at his place of business.

Â¶ Prime: Here’s a New York story that has been widelyÂ retailed aroundÂ the Blogosphere, from The Morning News to An Aesthete’s Lament: Drew University senior Maximilian Sinstedenis already an accomplished, sought-after interior designer.

Â¶ Tierce: We start off the week’s news (there’s only one story) with John Eligon’s wry portrait of Justice A Kirke Bartley Jr.

So, a lawyer, while questioning a witness, tells the judge, Justice A. Kirke Bartley Jr., that he has a request pertaining to a diamond-encrusted gold necklace worth tens of thousands of dollars that is in evidence.

This is the lighter side of the trial of Brooke Astorâ€™s son and one of Mrs. Astorâ€™s lawyers.

Â¶ Sext: If you’re going to be serious about the l-a-t-e-s-t episode of Star Trek, it’s probably best to start at The House Next Door, where Matt Maul confesses (I can think of no other word) to having been a fan for “thirty-five years.”

Â¶ Nones: On opposite stories of the Atlantic, dueling Chinese heroines. Here, now living in Queens, it’s Geng He, the wife of an insistent dissident who made a daring escape. There, it’s Nina Wang, “Asia’s richest woman,” who has the comparative disadvantage of being dead.

Â¶ Compline: Aside from being a brisk account of clinical depression that reads like one woman’s serious problem, and not the disease of the week, Daphne Merkin’s Times Magazine piece, “A Journey Through Darkness,” dwells on the bleakness of treatment facilities.

Â¶ Lauds: Terry Teachout writes about the unglamorous side of being an opera librettist. Asked how he does it all, the man of letters gives the manly answer:

I’m extremely humble about whatever gifts I may have, but I am not modest about the work I do. I work extremely hard and all the time.

Â¶ Prime: Now that it’s over, I can read about it: the era of Press Bush. Errol Morris asks three wire-service photographers to talk about their most illustrative photographs of the late President. (via kottke.org)

Â¶ Tierce: Preserving the death camp at Auschwitz poses a peculiar problem: the installation wasn’t built to last. And parts of it were blown up by the evacuating Germans, who assuredly weren’t concerned about the difficulty of maintaining a ruin.

Â¶ Nones: And here I thought that “slumdog” was a standard insult in Mumbai, applied to anyone (particularly anyone Muslim) from the city’s rather ghastly slums. Not so.

The screenplay writer, Simon Beaufoy, said people should not read too much into the title. “I just made up the word. I liked the idea. I didn’t mean to offend anyone,” he said.

Ijits!

Â¶ Vespers: Notwithstanding his prodigious output, John Updike was too young, at 76, to leave us. The commodore of American letters, he guidedÂ a convoy of writers from the avowedly amoral shoals of modernism to a native harbor of immanence, and he set his ships a high example for polished decks.

Â¶ Matins: If you want to know why the TimesÂ may have to cease publication in May, you need readÂ just this one story about the closing of GuantÃ¡namo, which makesÂ sense on only a minimal level. Money aside, the newspaper is incapable of presenting a complex story in three paragraphs. And what else are newspapers for?

Initial predictions by some art investors last year that oil-rich Arab countries, Russia, India and China would continue to spend on art, even as the United States and much of Western Europe stumbled into a recession, proved too optimistic.

Once upon a time, one might have made a remark like this about Japan. Japan could be counted upon to go on buying paintings by Nattier and subscribing to the Neue Mozart Ausgabe no matter what was going on in the European economies.

Â¶ Prime: After a long absence, V X Sterne is back at Outer Life.Â Now that the economy is bound for hell in a handbasket, our favorite Californian capitalist is feeling much better.

Â¶ Compline: Prince Harry is back in the news. Boy, this kid just doesn’t get it! Anybody who thinks that he’s really “third in line” for the English throneÂ â€” or even nth â€” must be living in a tea cosy.

Â¶ Lauds: Once upon a time, the Germans copied the French: Imperial princelings replicated, to the extent that their incomes would allow, Louis XIV’s country house (and stealth capitol) at Versailles. Now the Germans have taken the initiative, and the French are just watching.

Â¶ Prime: The (only) good thing about Web log awards is the chance to discover sites that you haven’t heard about. I don’t remember the category in which I came across Dizzying Intellect â€” the categories are utterly spurious in any case â€” but it doesn’t matter, because I found it.

Â¶ Tierce: Too big to filch? Bernard Madoff has been making unauthorized distributions of assets, according to prosecutors. His attorneys claim that the Cartier watches are relatively inexpensive sentimental items that Mr Madoff would like his family to have. In the dictionary, under the word “chutzpah”…. Alex Berenson reports.

Â Â¶ Sext: The thing to note about developer Fred Milani â€” if you can get beyond the House â€” is that he is “not very political.” Exactly! No politically-minded person would erect a scaled-down adaptation â€” “replica” is not the word â€” of the “President’s House.” The politically-minded person would be interested only in the real thing. And that’s not all…

Â¶ Nones: Trying to find an update on the violence in Greece that the Times reported the other day â€” it’s coverage, dismayingly, is better than that of the English papers that I’ve checked, as well as the BBC’s â€” I discover that the Turkish government has rounded up a bunch of secularist critics and accused them of fomenting a plot. This story does come from the BBC.

Â¶ Vespers: I’ve done just about nothing today but read Brian Morton’s first novel, The Dylanist. Published in 1991, this is a novel to dust off and re-read in the Age of Obama, not so much for any specific political alignment as for its portraits of people who are too richly principled for cynicism.

Â¶ Matins: The Cutup-in-Chief is unflappable: “â€œIâ€™m pretty good at ducking, as most of you will know…”

President Bush ducked â€” and didn’t get it. He seems to have thought that Muntader al-Zaidi’s outrage was a party prank gone awry, and certainly not representative of any widespread feelings about Duckya’s screwups in his homeland. Who knows what kind of an afterlife the episode is going to take on? Will Mr al-Zaidi one day head Iraq, in the manner of dissident playwright Vaclav Havel?

Â¶ Tierce: In yesterday’s “Deal Book,” there was a squib about what John Kenneth Galbraith’s study of the 1929 Crash has to tell us about the Madoff Fraud: the first is not the worst.

Â¶ Vespers: Joseph O’Neill writes! Well, of course…but don’t hold your breath between publications. How exciting, then, to read, at Maud Newton, that Mr O’Neill is a contributor to the current issue of Granta! I rush to yesterday’s mail, and there it is, “Fathers.” Turn to page 76, “Portrait of My Father” â€” a common title in the book. But what’s this, only three pages!Â

This afternoon, at Feldman’s Housewares, the ladies behind the counter tried to sell me one of these. Whether it was the charm of their attempt, or the delicious incongruousness of a plastic pickle that, upon request, produces a rather cackly yodel, I can’t say. But although I didn’t buy one, I think that I must have one.

Like Philip the Good, late duke of Burgundy, I shall “entertain” dinner guests by making them wonder why such a ghastly sing-song seems to be pouring forth from their derriÃ¨res.

Here’s the rub: do I order the Yodelling Pickle from Amazon, at a savings of three or four dollars? (I should note that even Feldman’s, on Madison Avenue in Carnegie Hill, isn’t charging Amazon’s “list price” of $22.96) Or do I support the neighborhood by trekking back up to 92nd Street? Either way, I’ll be mincemeat when Kathleen finds out.

LXIV tried to explain this to the salesladies. “If he buys it, his wife will never forgive me,” he pleaded. I nodded. “He’s the designated grownup,” I said. The ladies loved that one.

Â¶ Matins: Timothy Egan puts his finger on exactly what’s been bothering me since Barack Obama’s victory â€” bothering me like an itch, not like a problem.

In my younger and more vulnerable years, my father gave me some advice on the question of what to do when your dreams come true: donâ€™t tell anyone.

Conversely, what do we do when our darkest fears, our hardened conventional wisdom and our historic homilies are all found to be hooey? Shout it from the rooftops.

I can’t believe that I can really shout good news from the rooftops.

Â¶ Lauds: A European friend of mine decided to spend his vacation in Chicago. Boy, did he choose wisely. Before the election, he visited the Art Institute and took this picture, which we’ve all seen so many times that we can’t remember or even imagine not knowing it.

Â¶ Tierce: Aaron Ross of Bergenfield, in a Letter to the Editor, claims,

You refer to the â€œugly outcomesâ€ of the votes, the â€œdefeat for fairnessâ€ and â€œunfair treatmentâ€ of â€œvulnerable groupsâ€ â€” all terms indicative of the fact that you see this issue as one of rights.

The fact that 30 states have now passed similar bans on same-sex marriage should perhaps alert you to the fact that not everyone has accepted that version of the issue, and that many Americans have chosen to define gay marriage not as an issue of rights but as one of morality.

As a country, we are still firmly rooted in a Judeo-Christian ethic that leaves certain unions outside of the pale of acceptability.

This language, although calm enough is startlingly reminiscent of the outraged opposition to granting full civil rights to Black Americans fifty years ago.(more…)

Â¶ Matins: Perhaps, with the White House out of wingnut hands at last, humanists of all stripes, religious and not, will be able more effectively to confront the fringe of christianists who abuse everything about their ostensible faith in order to sustain a doddering status quo. Consider what they’re doing to my good friend Joe. This, from the spokesman for aÂ law firmÂ called the “Liberty Counsel”:

â€œGaysâ€ Call for Violence Against Christian Supporters of Prop 8…

Meanwhile, over at JoeMyGod.blogspot.com, â€œWorld O Jeff,â€ said, â€œBurn their fâ€“ing churches to the ground, and then tax the charred timbers.â€ While, â€œTread,â€ wrote, â€œI hope the No on 8 people have a long list and long knives.â€ â€œJoe,â€ stated, â€œI swear, Iâ€™d murder people with my bare hands this morning.â€

Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Alliance Action and Liberty Counsel, said, â€œThis is not just a matter of some people blowing off steam because theyâ€™re not happy with a political outcome. This is criminal activity. The homosexual lobby is always calling for â€˜toleranceâ€™ and â€˜diversityâ€™ and playing the role of victim. They claim to deplore violence and â€˜hate.â€™ Here we have homosexuals inciting, and directly threatening, violence against Christians. This is not free speech; these are â€˜hate crimesâ€™ under the existing definition. Imagine if Christian Web sites were advocating such violence against homosexuals. Thereâ€™d be outrage, and rightfully so. Itâ€™d be national front-page news. Federal authorities should immediately investigate these threats and prosecute the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law. I also call on the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and other leaders within the homosexual lobby to immediately call for an end to these homosexual threats of violence against Christians.â€

Anyone who hasn’t paid attention to the Prop 8 fight in California just might think that Mr Barber has a point, but nobody else will.

Â¶ Tierce: Nicholas Kulish writes about the resurgent popularity of the legendary Baltic pirate, Klaus StÃ¶rtebeker. StÃ¶rtebeker, beheaded in 1401, stole from the rich (Hanse merchants) and gave to the poor â€” or at least divvied up the loot with his mates. What with the rising income inequality that’s bothering more people everywhere, Germans are dusting off a legend that hasn’t, in fact, gathered much dust: StÃ¶rtebeker was a hit with the Nazis and also with the East Germans, at least in the early days of the DDR. One hitch:

Â¶ Matins: Lucy Q Denett, former associate director of revenue management at the Minerals Management Service, the government’s second-best source of revenue after taxes, was frank with investigators â€” up to a point:

But the report quotes Ms. Denett repeatedly telling investigators such things as â€œobviously I did it and it doesnâ€™t look properâ€ and that in retrospect she had made a â€œvery poorâ€ decision. She also told them that â€œshe had been preoccupied with a very stressful personal issue at the time,â€ which the report did not spell out.

What do you see first when looking at the old photographs on the left? Almost certainly not the intended subjects. One of the pictures is meant to show the Woolworth Building. Another is of the Brooklyn Bridge. The third is supposed to depict Division Street.

Well, the thing is, I do see the Woolworth Building. It is in every way a more meaningful building than the lost towers, which achieved significance only in destruction.

Â¶ Sext: Queens University Belfast will be offering a course called “Feel the Force: How to Train in the Jedi Way.” Won’t Mum and Dad be glad to hear about that! That old lunchbox will be great for lugging mobile, iPod and other kit to class.

Â¶ Compline: Jean Ruaud reports that his cousins in Houston are staying put. So is my sister, in Port Aransas. The other day, she wrote to say that she’d be evacuating the next morning at six. Carol, if you can read this, our prayers are working!